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Formerly the home of Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth, the Portland Land Matters blog explores citywide land-use concerns, such as home demolitions, with the belief that development should create an improvement.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Decision time nears

"Does this wall make my building look big?"

Three weeks ago Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth traveled to Salem to make our case against Wally Rammers's 4-story, 50-unit building on Northeast Fremont. The countdown clock ticks as we anticipate hearing any hour now how the members of the state Land Use Board of Appeals ruled on our four assignments of error with the permit (briefly, they had to do with whether the city's requirement of parking for buildings of this size applies, the non-code conforming placement of the drywell, the shortcutting of process in defining the site, and the project's various structures set within required setbacks or too close to adjacent lot lines).

The gist of all the particulars is that Remmers built a building too big for the site, and got a lot of city staffers to rubber-stamp it. Regardless of how LUBA rules, hopefully this shameful chapter of Portland's development history receives no sequel. After all, the city can't afford any more bad will. The developer shouldn't get any more special treatment, especially given what this project has cost us all in terms of effort, expense, and good faith. And the members of Beaumont-Wilshire Neighbors for Responsible Growth can hardly afford the legal appeal we made just trying to right this mess at the state level.

Speaking of support, have you—dear readers—donated to the cause? If we had a buck for every one of the 6,500 visits to this blog, we could pay the rest of our legal bills. You can contribute online, drop a check to BWNRG at the Fremont branch of Umpqua Bank, or send it to our awesome pro bono accountant WP Price, 4300 NE Fremont, #250, Portland, OR 97213.

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Neighbors work at all levels to stem the destruction of unique, affordable housing and the wave of lower-quality and more expensive construction taking its place. Join us.

This blog also chronicles the fight to bring Wally Remmers's project on Northeast Fremont between 44th and 45th avenues into compliance. The project has become a symbol of the city's inability to consistently apply code and stand up to out-of-town developers exploiting Portland's finest resource.